Oklahoma State (RPI: 36, KenPom: 29) is going to be an interesting bubble case come Selection Sunday. In the first game of Marcus Smart’s suspension, they were beaten down by a Texas team missing one of their starting forwards. That means that the Pokes have now lost five straight and six of their last seven, and they still have to play Oklahoma at home and at Baylor before Smart returns to the lineup.

What that means is that when their star point guard returns to the fold, this could be a team that sitting on a seven-game losing streak with a 4-9 record in the Big 12. That doesn’t exactly look like a bubble team.

But remember, the committee looks at suspensions the same way that they do injuries. They’ll look past the three games he missed which, ironically enough, means that it may be better to lose all three games without Smart than it would be to win one.

Now, Travis Ford’s club is going to have work to do once Smart returns to action. They play Kansas, Kansas State and at Iowa State in their last three games, and at the very least they’ll need to win two of those. Just don’t be surprised if Oklahoma State is able to sneak into the dance with a losing record in league play.

THE REST OF TUESDAY’S BUBBLE ACTION

N.C. State (RPI: 51, KenPom: 76) is still alive after beating Wake Forest, but if Tennessee keeps losing, they’ll be without a top 50 RPI win. They’ll get chances against Syracuse and Pitt.

Clemson (RPI: 68, KenPom: 54) has a win over Duke, which is keeping them in the conversation here. But that won’t be enough if they keep losing to the likes of Notre Dame, as they did Tuesday.

Tennessee (RPI: 49, KenPom: 24) blew their last chance to pick up a marquee win before the SEC tournament when they lost to Florida. We wrote about it more extensively here.

Ole Miss (RPI: 61, KenPom: 72) did exactly what they couldn’t afford to do last night, losing to Alabama on the road. It’s their second loss in the SEC to a team with an RPI in the triple digits. They have home games against Florida and Kentucky coming up. They have to get at least one of those.

Marquette (RPI: 70, KenPom: 52) only has one really bad loss — at Butler — but with just one top 50 win now that Providence and Georgetown are both outside the top 50, the Golden Eagles, at 14-9, have a lot of work to do. They probably need to beat either Creighton or Villanova to have a real chance.